392 Mr. T. Ayres on the Ornithology of Transvaal. 



dans aucune partie de la cote de Test, au lieu qu^il est tres- 

 abondant dans le pays des Namaquois, notamment depuis la 

 Grande Riviere jusque vers le tropique/' and which he thus 

 describes : — " Sa tete et sa gorge seulement sont noires ; 

 tout le reste du plumage est d^in brun terreux^ plus fonce 

 sur les ailes et la queue ; couleur qui s^eclaircit sur la poitrine 

 et qui blanchit totalement au ventre; les couvertures du 

 dessous de la queue sont d\in jaune citron; les yeux^ d'un 

 brun fonccj sont entoures d^une paupiere orangee d'une demi- 

 ligne d'epaisseur ; le bee et les pieds sont brunatres/^ 



This description, which is much more accurate than the 

 figure that it accompanies, agrees very well (except that the 

 bill should have been described as black, the feet also as black, 

 or very nearly so, and the irides as reddish brown) with the 

 Pycnonotus, which is found (sometimes with a yellow, but 

 more often with an orange, tumid eyelid) from Damaraland 

 to the west, as far eastward as Transvaal, thus occupying a 

 more northerly range than that inhabited by P. capensis, 

 which seems not to extend beyond the Cape colony. 



I may add that the colour of the eyelid appears to be more 

 permanent in specimens of P. nigricans than in those of P. 

 capensis. I have before me two that were obtained in 1876, 

 in which the orange-yellow circle round the eye is still con- 

 spicuous ; and though, no doubt, this colour gradually fades, 

 it does not become white, as is the case with the eyelid of 

 P. capensis. 



P. nigricans associates in Transvaal with a third, nearly 

 allied species, which appeal's to be the only Pycnonotus in- 

 habiting Natal, whence it extends northwards to Zanzibar, 

 and southwards (according to Mr. Layard, Ibis, 1871, p. 230) 

 to Graham's Town. 



In ' The Ibis ' for 1860, p. 209, I referred this species to 

 P. nigricans, to which Captain Shelley also referred it in * The 

 Ibis' for 1875, p. 74; but in 'The Ibis' for 1873, p. 255, I 

 referred it to P. tricolor, under which head it is also com- 

 prised in Sharpe's edition of Layard. 



Subsequent investigation has convinced me that this Pyc- 

 nonotus is, as stated by Mr. Layard in ' The Ibis ' for 1871, 



